1. Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relates to a storage medium storing an input position processing program and an input position processing device, and more particularly to a storage medium storing an input position processing program and an input position processing device for determining an operation to be performed based on input positions outputted from a pointing device, such as a touch panel, that is capable of outputting position information of a predetermined coordinate system.
2. Description of the Background Art
Techniques for determining an operation to be performed next (hereinafter referred to as the “next operation”) based on a series of positions (each represented by a set of X and Y coordinates) inputted by operating a mouse are known in the art. Techniques for performing a display operation by display means based on a series of positions inputted by operating a touch panel or a mouse. For example, web browsers for viewing webpages on the Internet that allow the user to browse with an input method called “mouse gestures” have been proposed in the art, as described in, for example, “Mouse Gestures in Opera” (available on the Internet as of Mar. 15, 2005 at http://www.opera.com/features/mouse/) (hereinafter “Non-Patent Document 1”).
With the browser described in Non-Patent Document 1, the user can move to the previous page by moving the mouse pointer leftward in the background area of the webpage while holding down the right button and then releasing the right button. The user can move to the next page by moving the mouse pointer rightward in the background area of the webpage while holding down the right button and then releasing the right button. Moving the mouse pointer downward in the background area of the webpage while holding down the right button and then releasing the right button opens a new window. Moving the mouse pointer downward and then upward in the background area of the webpage while holding down the right button and then releasing the right button duplicates a window.
Right-clicking on a link in a webpage, moving the mouse pointer downward while holding down the right button, and then releasing the right button opens the link in a new window in the foreground. Right-clicking on a link in a webpage, moving the mouse pointer downward and then upward while holding down the right button, and then releasing the right button opens the link in a new window in the background. These are different operations from opening a link in the current window by left-clicking the link.
With the mouse gestures disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, the next operation is determined based on a direction or a combination of directions indicated by a series of input positions specified through a mouse movement. Thus, these mouse gestures can eliminate the need to point to and click on buttons or toolbars placed around a webpage on the display screen.
With some browsers such as “Sleipnir”, a mouse gesture being recognized is displayed on the lower left corner of the screen. For example, directions indicated by a series of input positions specified through a mouse movement are displayed in real time to the user using arrow symbols such as “↑”, “↓”, “←” and “→” in the order they are recognized. With such a display, the user can expect the next operation.
Moreover, with the mouse gestures disclosed in Non-Patent Document 1, a display operation by display means is performed based on a direction or a combination of directions indicated by a series of input positions specified through a mouse movement.
There are other techniques proposed in the art, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3095145 (hereinafter “Patent Document 1”), in which a series of input positions inputted by moving a stylus pen on a touch panel is recognized as a “pen trace”, wherein the current window is moved to the position where the stylus pen has been moved if the pen trace has no bend therein, and the current window is retracted to a predetermined location if the pen trace has a bend therein.
However, while the browser described in Non-Patent Document 1 works with no problems when the user makes an appropriate stroke in the first place, it presents a problem when the user makes an inappropriate stroke. Specifically, the browser stores a series of input positions specified through a mouse movement, and therefore if the user draws an inappropriate trace and keeps moving the mouse in an attempt to correct the inappropriate trace, it will only accumulate more unintended traces, thus failing to perform a next operation intended by the user. In order for the user to erase the inappropriate trace or traces, the user needs to once release the right mouse button and then hold the right button again to re-draw an intended trace.
It may be possible to determine the next operation based only on a single direction, instead of a combination of directions, indicated by a series of input positions specified through a mouse movement. This however reduces the variety of usable operation gestures to the number of directions to be distinguished from one another. If the number of directions to be distinguished from one another is excessively increased, the angle between two adjacent directions will be so small that the direction intended by the user may often be different from the direction of the user's stroke as recognized by the computer, thereby making the use of gestures more difficult for the user.
A browser of the type in which an operation gesture being recognized is displayed on the lower left corner of the display screen has the following problem. Since a recognized operation gesture is displayed in such an inconspicuous place as the lower left corner of the display screen, it is not readily recognized by the user. Even if it is recognized by the user, the user needs to move the eyes back and force between the portion of interest of the webpage and the lower left corner of the screen, which may be tiresome for the user.
Moreover, some mouse gestures of the browser described in Non-Patent Document 1 may not be intuitive for the user. For example, it may be difficult to establish an intuitive association between the operation of “moving the mouse pointer downward in a background area of the webpage while holding down the right button” and the display operation of “opening a new window”. It may also be difficult to establish an intuitive association between the operation of “moving the mouse pointer downward and then upward in a background area of the webpage while holding down the right button” and the display operation of “duplicating a window”. Therefore, associations between these mouse gestures and the display operations need to be memorized by the user simply as rules. The need to memorize such rules detracts from the usefulness of the mouse gesture function.
Similarly, with the technique of Patent Document 1, the association between the touch panel operation in which the user draws a pen trace with a bend therein and the display operation of retracting a window is merely a rule to be memorized, and it is difficult to establish an intuitive association therebetween. It should be noted that even if a user operation and the corresponding display operation can be associated with each other intuitively, it is meaningless if the display operation is not a useful operation. Therefore, it is preferred that a display operation, which can be intuitively associated with a user operation, is in itself an useful operation.